{"id":11057,"date":"2026-01-20T18:04:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T10:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=11057"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:53:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T10:53:51","slug":"taste-of-thai-in-tanay-rizal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/taste-of-thai-in-tanay-rizal\/","title":{"rendered":"Taste of Thai in Tanay, Rizal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>For those heading to Thailand, I always recommend eating local. That is, to avoid eating in restaurants \u2013 fancy or not \u2013 and try grabbing Pad Thai, for example, from some Thai <em>karinderya<\/em> or those street vendors in Silom or Chatuchak or wherever. Tourist-centric venues tend to dilute their flavors to accommodate non-Thai taste buds. But Thai cuisine is very distinct, and toning down these flavors remove their being Thai food in the first place.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@outragemag\/video\/7597395090050403592\" data-video-id=\"7597395090050403592\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;\" >\n<section> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"@outragemag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@outragemag?refer=embed\">@outragemag<\/a> Looking for <a title=\"thailand\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/thailand?refer=embed\">#thailand<\/a> <a title=\"thai\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/thai?refer=embed\">#Thai<\/a> cuisine in <a title=\"tanay\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/tanay?refer=embed\">#Tanay<\/a>, <a title=\"rizal\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/rizal?refer=embed\">#Rizal<\/a>? We <a title=\"lgbt\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/lgbt?refer=embed\">#LGBT<\/a> checked <a title=\"kamalacafe\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/kamalacafe?refer=embed\">#KamalaCafe<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"\u266c original sound Outrage Magazine\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/music\/original-sound-Outrage-Magazine-0?refer=embed\">\u266c original sound Outrage Magazine<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This diluting of flavors is what\u2019s common when you find Thai restaurants in many parts of the Philippines. And so the discovery of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KamalaCafePH\/\">Kamala Caf\u00e9<\/a> in Tanay in the province of Rizal was\u2026 admittedly, a pleasant surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Una<\/em>, going to the place is challenging for those who do not have private vehicle\/s. It isn\u2019t exactly near Metro Manila, and public transportation is hard to come by there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ikalawa<\/em>, make use of the guides in front of the venue. This is essential because this is in some compound, and you may find yourself in the neighboring seafood restaurant instead. This is also important because the narrow path leading to the restaurant can get slippery when wet. You\u2019d need someone to tell you to go slow, go slow\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ikatlo<\/em>, the restaurant itself is\u2026 modern rustic. You get open-air seating with not-bad views of the largely untouched mountain ranges. But be warned that the place can get cold, and \u2013 when raining \u2013 water just pours in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ika-apat<\/em>, the people working there were better-than-okay <em>naman<\/em>, not just knowledgeable about the restaurant and its offerings, but provided requested services (e.g. move the food to another table for the shoots).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ikalima<\/em>, how was the food?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Som Tam (\u20b1235) was, actually, Thai-tasting: fresh veggies used, better-than-okay dressing, and so on. If there\u2019s an issue \u2013 a very tiny one \u2013 it\u2019s the <em>puwede pa<\/em> to add more oomph by adding more palm sugar and fish sauce. But, yeah, we\u2019d take this over all the papaya salads we\u2019ve so far tried\u2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Pad Thai (\u20b1325) was a win for me. It\u2019s hard to find one that tastes like those offered in the streets of, say, Bangkok, and this one\u2019s almost there.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The not-skinny slices of Satay Chicken (\u20b1365) were properly cooked <em>naman<\/em>, so that\u2019s good. An issue, for Arthur, is that this is \u201cnothing special\u201d. BBQ chicken <em>lang siya<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tom Yum (\u20b1475) was \u2013 indeed \u2013 spicy and tangy, but it was also runny.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The drinks were the disappointment \u2013 e.g. selling for \u20b1185, the Hot Koko tasted like Ovaltine <em>lang<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Tanay isn\u2019t exactly easily accessible to all, so if you decide to eat at Kamala Caf\u00e9 at all, you have to be willing to allocate time, money, <em>et cetera<\/em>, which everyone is not willing to do. But yeah\u2026 this one\u2019s a better-than-okay choice, indeed, for a Thai restaurant. So check out if able to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But off we go to search for more <em>lafangan<\/em> venues\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Kamala Caf\u00e9 is located at KM54 Marilaque Highway, Brgy. Cuyambay, Marikina-Infanta Highway, Tanay, Rizal.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Diluting of flavors is common among Thai restaurants in many parts of the Philippines. So the discovery of Kamala Caf\u00e9 in Tanay, Rizal was, admittedly, a pleasant surprise because this one&#8217;s serious in offering goodies from Thailand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,7],"tags":[776,1620,2549,2539,110,1742],"class_list":["post-11057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destinations","category-dining-out","category-travel","tag-dining","tag-eating-out","tag-kamala-cafe","tag-tanay","tag-travel-2","tag-travel-adventure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11061,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11057\/revisions\/11061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}